


Lips of an Angel

by mysterious_song



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Adultery-ish, F/M, based off of ‘lips of an angel’ fanvid, for Inspired by OQ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 17:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20764499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysterious_song/pseuds/mysterious_song
Summary: “You make it hard to be faithful, with the lips of an angel.”A ficlet for Inspired by OQ, based on the fanvid by Given Not Stolen...





	Lips of an Angel

There’s something about being in the shower that clears Robin’s head. It’s a moment where he doesn’t have any distractions, and he can work out what is on his mind - then try and fix it. 

Though this time, he’s not sure it  _ can _ be fixed. 

His mind wanders to a woman, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a beautiful smile. And it’s not the woman he’s dating. 

He loves Marian. Truly, he does, but… There’s always  _ what-ifs _ in life - and this is one of them. 

He’s been thinking about her a lot as of late, and however many showers he takes to try and clear his head, she’s always the one occupying his thoughts. 

He just can’t seem to shake it. 

Frustrated, he steps out of the shower, towelling himself dry with more vigour than is required, then donning his dressing gown to head into the front room. 

He’s barely set foot over the threshold before he hears his phone start to ring. Marian appears from the kitchen, heading towards the table where his phone is, but Robin hastens his pace to get there before she does. 

He knows who it is. There’s only one person who calls him at this time. 

Regina Mills. The one that got away.

“Hello,” he greets, a smile tugging at his lips before she even says anything. 

But when she offers her own  _ ‘hi’ _ , he picks up on something within her tone straight away. Some that has him immediately asking: “Is everything okay?” 

He can see Marian out the corner of his eye, watching him with a concerned expression, and so he motions to the bedroom, mouthing ‘friend from work’ before he heads there for a bit of privacy. Technically it’s not a lie; they  _ did _ work together once. Just… it’s not the whole truth either. 

He makes it all the way to the bedroom and sits on the bed before realising she hadn’t even answered him. And so he asks again; “Regina, are you alright?”

“Of course,” she protests, and he’d believe her if he wasn’t so attuned to her voice. And sure enough, there’s a slight sniffle before she confesses; “not really.”

In a moment he’s stood straight, immediately gearing up to fight whatever it is that dared to hurt her. 

“Who am I beating up?” Her slight chuckle does little to soothe the ire coursing through his veins. “I’m serious, Regina. I’ll not let anyone get away with hurting you.” 

“You’re sweet, but it’s really not necessary.”

“Of course it is.”

She sighs, taking a moment to inhale again before she states; “I’m just… wallowing.”

Robin frowns, sitting back down on his mattress. “Wallowing? About what?” 

Regina pauses, falling silent for a second. “This is not exactly how I thought my life would turn out.” 

Robin frowns. Regina is one of the most determined people he has ever met, she is already climbing through the ranks at her workplace, fully on track to reach the top within the next ten years. 

“Why not? I thought you were on target to getting what you wanted?” 

“I don’t think I know what that is anymore.” 

She sounds lost, like she used to whenever her mother got into her head, and all Robin wants to do is wrap his arms around her. 

“Well, that’s something you need to take time to figure out,” he gently explains. “If you don’t have a bullseye, your aim won’t be true.” 

“Archery metaphors again?” She giggles. “I thought we left those back at college.”

“We didn’t leave anything back at college,” Robin quietly admits, his mind reaching back to the years he irrevocably fell for this woman. “Except, perhaps, those apple dessert thingies that tasted like cardboard.” 

Regina laughs, no doubt also remembering the canteen’s lack of tasty food. “I knew baking for you would ruin you forever.” 

“Your turnovers are just so delicious. I miss them.” 

_ ‘I miss you _ ’ he wants to say, but that would be inappropriate, wouldn’t it?

There’s muffled sounds on the other end of the line, and he hears a voice ask: “Mom, come on, who are you talking to?”

Her response of ‘ _ just a friend’ _ shouldn’t hurt as much as it does. But this is what they’d agreed to, was it not? 

‘Just friends’. 

Despite the longing in their souls, the love in their hearts, they’d agreed to move on, to let go. Fresh out of college was not their time, they had different paths they wanted their life to go down, different end-goals that weren’t compatible. 

And yet, they’ve done nothing but bump into each other for years. So often, in fact, that they’ve given up all pretence of ‘keeping their distance’ in favour of rekindling their friendship (as if it had needed any rekindling). They’ve sneaked out to grab a drink or two, taken each other out to see movies, called each other up in the middle of the night just to talk.

So, their plan to keep their distance has never worked. 

But in all honesty, Robin didn’t have the strength to do that. He still doesn’t. He’s not even sure if Regina does. 

They’re still clinging onto what could have been, the what-ifs… Having secret, late night phone calls when both of them should be focusing on other people in their lives. 

But neither of them can seem to stop. 

“Robin?” Regina’s voice interrupts his musings.

A small smile quirks Robin’s lips. The way she says his name… it’s something he could never hear enough. 

“Do you fancy a drink?” He asks, mouth forming words before his brain has time to process it. “You still owe me one, remember?” 

“Robin…” Her tone is one of slight warning, as if she knows his intentions before he does. 

She does owe him a drink, she said so herself, when they’d finally both plucked up the courage to arrange a date. A  _ proper _ date. 

It hadn’t come to pass though; she’d been called away for a work meeting, he’d been called away for a family issue, and they’d taken that as a sign it wasn’t their time. 

But then life happened, and they went different paths, and it occurred to Robin that maybe they’d missed their time completely.

“Regina, I… Do you ever think about… what could have been if, well, if we’d gone on that date?” 

“Robin…”

“I do,” he admits. “More than I should.”

“Me too,” Regina confesses after a pause. “I guess we never really moved on, huh?” 

Robin’s lips press together, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as he realises how fucked up this whole situation is. 

His heart hurts, and before he knows it, he’s outrightly told Regina: “I miss you.”

“Robin… I can’t do this.” She sounds pained, as if it hurts her to hear that. Robin can’t understand why. 

“Do what?”

She answers with her own question: “Where’s Marian?” 

He answers without missing a best: “In the next room,” 

It should fill him with guilt, the thought of wanting one woman whilst the one he was supposed to be with is only one room away. But it doesn’t. Any time he spends with Regina, it feels right. As if it was meant to be. 

He couldn’t give that - her - up. 

Not then. Not now. Not ever. 

“I’ve just come out the shower, let me put some clothes on and go somewhere quieter.” 

He needs space. A quiet place to clear his head so he can think about things. 

It’s not the first time he’s considered this; breaking things off with Marian. It’s unfair to stay with her when she’s not his first choice. But she’s kind, and beautiful, and is very similar to him; both in personality and in life ambitions. They were compatible. 

But Regina… she’s fiercely determined to a fault, and has a fiery temper on the end a very short fuse. She’s made no secret of her plan to work her way to the top, wanting to be in a position of power to make changes that matter. And whilst he loved that about her, it meant she barely had any time for other people in her life. 

Henry is the exception. A smart boy that she adores with all her heart. If he asked her to give up her job for him, she would. 

Robin’s only slightly jealous.

But he admires her loyalty. It just adds to the ‘things I love about Regina Mills’ list.

“Robin…” she sighs, and he can hear the doubt in her tone. They shouldn’t be doing this, but lo and behold, they are. And despite how much either of them want to stop, they know it’s not within their power. It’s as if fate keeps pushing them together, having them in the same place at the same time whenever they’ve tried to withdraw. 

Who is Robin to go against fate? 

“Please?” He asks. “I just need 20 minutes to get somewhere I can think without the noise of the city.” 

There’s a pause where Regina decides what to do, he can practically hear her mind whirring. They’ve already been talking too long, reminiscing on their past and dancing around their feelings. He knows she wants to hang up and not call him back so soon, she may even think she has the strength to, but by the way she’s spoken to him tonight, he knows they’ll be continuing this conversation. 

Sure enough, she agrees to give him twenty minutes, and adds on a “drive safe” as if she knows where he’s going. 

He smiles and then ends the call, tugging on trousers and a hoodie before grabbing his jacket from the back of the door. 

Robin heads into the front room, collecting his keys from the bowl on the table and announcing to Marian: “I have to go.”

She doesn’t seem pleased, twisting on the sofa to look at him as she asks: “Now? Really? It’s almost 10 o’clock?”

“Sorry, love.” He wraps his fingers around the door handle, trying not to think about how tenuous their relationship is right now. 

He’s...  _ content _ with Marian. He’s not exactly unhappy, he’s just… not fully invested in their future.

He loves her. But he’s not  _ in love _ with her.

But Regina… His stomach flutters at the mere thought of her. She invades his dreams, his fantasies… He wonders if that excitement and joy would still be there if they’d had their time, if she was the one he woke up to every morning. If Regina was the one sat on his sofa, sipping tea as she watched cooking shows, would he still be needing space to clear his head as often as he does now? 

He wishes he knew. 

But as it stands, he just needs a moment to get out of the house, and so he comments: “head to bed if you’re tired; I don’t know how long I’ll be.” 

“Robin…”

He doesn’t let her finish. Instead, he just walks out the door with a casual: “I’ll see you later.”

… 

Robin arrives at his destination with five minutes to spare - at this time of night there’s hardly any traffic - and so he sets about collecting a few branches for kindling. 

The forest has always been a respite for him. As a child, his father would take him camping, teach him ways of survival and independence. So instead of using the torch on his phone and draining the battery, he’s going to build himself a little campfire. Right near to the fallen tree which acts as a bench for him to sit and contemplate his life on. 

There’s only one person he’s told about this spot, only one person he’s felt comfortable enough to bring here, and how ironic it is that she’s the one he needs this space to think about. 

Once he’s set up a little fire he sits down and closes his eyes, and the first thing he sees is her smile. That elusive, but satisfying curve of her lips that he tries so hard to bring out of her. 

He knows life hasn’t been all that kind to her, what she’s told him of her childhood makes him want to wrap his arms around her and never let go - unless it’s to confront that mother of hers that never seemed to hold any maternal love for her daughter. 

He just wishes he could show her that she’s worthy of love. That she doesn’t have to rely on herself, raise her son by herself; she deserves to be the one taken care of. 

He’d cook a meal for her to come home to after a long day at work, let her have a late morning in bed as he prepared Henry for school, run her a bath to relax in whilst he performs the bedtime routine… He’d worship her body until she was too satiated to even move, kiss her until she was breathless, and hold her so close there would be no space between them. 

He wants  _ everything _ with her. 

And it’s not fair that he can’t.

He can’t run his fingers through her hair, can’t trail his hands over her curves, can’t press his lips to hers whenever he finds them irresistible - which is most of the time. She has the lips of an angel, and he’s completely fallen for her. And if that earns him a place in hell then he doesn’t really care anymore: she’s worth it. 

His rambling thoughts stop at the sound of a twig snapping behind him, and he strains his ears to hear any other movement. There’s the crunch of leaves, sounding louder as they get nearer to him, and Robin stands to attention. His hands pat his pockets and he tries to find something - anything - he can use to defend himself with, but there’s nothing. 

As branches move in the shadows, Robin considers breaking off a bit of the tree he was sat on to brandish as a weapon, but then a figure pushes their way into his clearing, and he knows who it is before he’s even seen their face.

“Regina…” 

He doesn’t know why she’s here - he was not expecting to see her face tonight - but he can’t help the bright smile that graces his lips at the sight of her. 

Then his smile drops as he realises the reason why he’s here in the first place. 

He needed to clear his head of her to work out what he wanted from his future. Now all he can think about is her. 

He doesn’t know why she’s here, but he starts airing his thoughts before he can rethink what a stupid decision he’s making. “I can’t stop thinking about you. And I know there are plenty of reasons why I should stop, but… I don’t want to. I want  _ you _ . And I don’t care if you don’t feel the same; I just need to say it and hopefully get this out of my system because-”

She doesn’t let him finish, taking two determined steps towards him, and then grabbing the lapels of his jacket to pull his lips onto hers. 

At first his brain short-circuits, barely comprehending the fact that it’s  _ Regina _ who’s kissing him, and he just stumbles forward into her as his mind tries to click back into gear. She presses more insistently against him for a moment before she starts to pull away.

Her lips leave his and he suddenly feels bereft, as if one second without her touch is too much. His eyes open to see an expression of shock on her face, as if she’s having just as much difficulty comprehending what’s just happened as he is. There’s a slight fear in her eyes too, as if she’s worried he’ll reject her. 

She needn’t have that fear; within seconds he’s regained brain power, and he’s taken a step towards her to return the kiss. This time he has the sense to catalogue every detail; the softness of her lips, the puff of her breath against his cheek, the scent of her perfume...

His hand lifts so he can run his fingers through her hair, adjusting to kiss her deeper before he drops his touch to her body, tracing over her curves as he pulls her even closer to him. 

She’s intoxicating. And now that he knows how this feels, there is no way he can live without now.

Robin knows there should be a part of him that stops this, a part that says this is not the right time… But this is what he’s dreamt about for decades, and so he’s damn well going to treasure every moment. 

He will deal with this later, work out what this meant for him and his future some other time.

Until then, he’s just going to lose himself in the kiss of his dreams, and the lips of an angel.


End file.
